Purgatory
by IcarusForgotten
Summary: Tis a consumation devoutly to be wished" - Hamlet, Act III Scene ii


Act 3, Scene 1 – Act 3, Scene 2:

_This is a gap scene within Hamlet that we had to write for a class assignment . . . we acted it out too:)_

Act 3, Scene 1 – Act 3, Scene 2:

**Hamlet:**She needs no fare

When crossing the dark waters with Charon;

Her open legs are fare enough. So fair,

That even Cerberus refuses to feast

Upon her flesh, but rather quell his hunger (5)

At her whore's request. Oh, how her moans

Still resound in my head; the memory of her warm

Flesh trapping me like a blanket.

She is like Demeter's flower, an orchid

Of the finest silk petals, stained with purple satin – (10)

Then the winter comes,

And she dies. And winter shows no mercy:

Freezing the clear, reflective ponds,

Trapping the fish and the mermaids

Beneath the mirrored ice. (15)

The first snowfall of winter approaches, its delicate

Flakes falling freely

Through the sky, as quickly as if it were liquid mercury,

Burying the flower beneath a vast blanket of quicksilver.

Too soon the seasons change again, and spring dawns (20)

Upon the shadow of this cold, dark realm, thawing

The ice and melting the snow. The fish have survived,

But the mermaid –

The mermaid who is still half human –

Hath drowned beneath winter's rage. The snow clears away,(25)

And the flower still remains; yet

Her fragile body, its soft, violet petals, remain broken,

Eternally welting in the melting snow. Oh, Ophelia,

How you've betrayed me! How you burn

The flowers in my heart like a flame burning (30)

The wax of a candle, watching from its perch upon the wick,

Watching as the wax melts down the body

Of the red candle, pooling

At its base to form a viscous quantity

Of incarnate liquid. (35)

**Voice:** Forget Ophelia . . .

**Hamlet:**Father? I hear your voice, but cannot find your

Ghost. Father

Where are you?

**Voice:** Forget Ophelia . . . (40)

**Hamlet:** I cannot remember how to

Forget.

**Voice:** Forget Ophelia . . .

Hamlet:You cannot forget

Who you love and who you hate! You cannot forget (45)

When all the meaning in your life has been

Deterred by a longing, a determination

For vengeance. You cannot forget

The sharp, recessive pain of

Loss . . . (50)

Love . . .

Betrayal . . .

**Voice:** Forget Ophelia . . .

**Hamlet:** Get out of my head! Stop telling me to forget

When I can only remember. (55)

I cannot forget

How to remember!

**Voice:** Forget Ophelia . . .

**Hamlet:**Enough! It is your fault that I cannot forget

Her; your fault that she no longer loves (60)

Me! Your fault that she has a reason to hate

Me! This is all because of

You – you and your polluted, vengeful

Ghost!

**Voice:** Forget, Hamlet, (65)

You must learn to forget . . .

**Hamlet:**Why has you nature suddenly become

Hypocritical? Why do you vex me

To forget when you yourself

Refuse to forget? Why can't you forget? (70)

If you only could have had courage enough to forget

Your brother's betrayal, forget

My mother's incestuous longing, forget

The cause of your unjust murder,

Ophelia would still love (75)

Me! But now Ophelia

Fears and despises me – because of you!

And I am left alone – because of you!

And my mother is a whore – because of you!

And Claudius rules your fallen throne – because of you! (80)

Everything is falling apart – all the seams of time are slowly

Beginning to unweave, tearing a hole through the allied

Stars, raging wars within the Heavens. All this chaos is

Because of you. I despise you!

You are like a garden of leeches (85)

Drowning through the water until you rest

Upon a mermaid's rotting flesh, reawakening

Your pitiful life as you feast upon her blood; the same poison

Which bestowed

You to your earthly throne, as you rule the forests, whose floors(90)

Remain matted with dampened, decomposing leaves.

And you rest upon that throne, drinking the life

Out of me, filling my head

With your vengeance, your desires, stealing

My own life – my own will to live – just to fulfill (95)

Your sleepless vengeance. You have corrupted

My mind with your killing

Games, reducing me to nothing but

A walking corpse! – Yet what are you?

Your forgotten leeches' spirit falls away, and her open (100)

Wounds continue to bleed, her blood infusing itself with the black

Sea, forming a pool of incarnate

Wine – and you mark me a corpse?

A corpse

Unfit to even lay inn the presence of Hades' throne . . . unfit(105)

To be targeted by the storms

Of fire that fall from the sky.

Please forgive me

Father . . .

Please . . . (110)

Please . . .

Please . . .

Forgive me . . .

I am so lost, so . . . empty! Emptier

Than tombs without bones, graves (115)

Without souls. Everyone has

Turned against me and I am so very

Lonely!

I vow to avenge

You . . . Father . . . (120)


End file.
